Weekend in Amsterdam

The last weekend in October, I went to Amsterdam for a long weekend. It just so happened that my friend Betsy and her fiancé Tobias were having their going away party the same weekend. I'm so glad I got to see them once more before they moved to Ethiopia for the year. Betsy and I have only met a few times through mutual friends (Rachel Stuckey Slaton and Jordan Fisher Strayhorn) but talking with her is like catching up with a dear friend. We both grew up in Arkansas. I seem to find Arkansans where ever I go. 

Compared to Madrid, the weather in Amsterdam was very cold. It rained and hailed! There were a lot of uprooted trees from a storm the weekend before. But the weather never deters the good people of Amsterdam from riding their bikes. EVERYONE rides a bike ALL the time. However, when my umbrella broke from being pelted by hail, I opted to take cover at the Amsterdam EYE and saw a movie because all the exhibits were already closed. 

There are also a lot of bridges, canals, and boats. Most of the pictures I took are of bridges and canals. I only included my favorites. 

I took a ferry boat around the city with my friend Anton. We thought about waiting in line for the Anne Frank House (several times because I read that it's a MUST SEE!), but the wait was about two hours. If you go to Amsterdam, try to buy your tickets online before you go to avoid the line!

We spent a lot of time walking around Jordaan and De 9 Straatjes. Everyone in Amsterdam speaks English and people are insulted if you ask them if they speak English. I only made that mistake once. 

Per recommendation of Michelle Reynolds, I went to Cafe Proust in Jordaan. Since it was a Sunday night, I was one of three customers there. I chatted with the bartender, read a magazine in Dutch, and enjoyed a hot bowl of tomato soup (which was much needed after the hail).

This is Dam Square. It's near the center of the city. 

This is En Waag (The Weigh House), one of the oldest buildings in Amsterdam.

Although I planned to go to so many museums, we ended up only hitting Stedelijk at Trouw, a modern art exhibit, and Amsterdam Museum which covered the history and evolution of the city.

 I think one of my favorite things about Amsterdam, which I didn't expect, was finding so many crooked, old houses. It might be hard to tell from the photo, but the house on the left side of the street is  definitely leaning. 

Lastly, I went to a thrift store that had new and old clothing. I pretty much wanted to buy everything in this store, especially because I left most of my favorite oversized sweaters in New York. But I kept picking out dresses to try on that had the same label: KLING. When I checked out, I asked about the label and she told me it's a Spanish store! So of course once I returned to Madrid, I found the store and bought this and this (the skirt). I'm slightly obsessed.

Exhibits, Bar, Park, & Halloween

So finally, here is photographic evidence of what I've been up to over the last few weeks in Madrid!

First, I went to an exhibit called data.path by Ryoji Ikeda. 

If you find yourself in Madrid before January, you should definitely go!

Then I went to a bar called El Tigre. Buy a beer and get tapas. Lots of restaurants are like that, especially in Andalusia. But they are harder to come by in Madrid. And take note that this is a picture when I was finished eating!! Needless to say, there are always a lot of international students at El Tigre.

 Every Wednesday I go to an Intercambio (language exchange) at Cafe Galdos off of Gran Via. It's a beautiful street, and sometimes reminds me of New York.

I also went to Matadero, another museum close to where I live to see the exhibit Cenotes by Magdalena  Atria. 

And I go to Retiro Park as often as possible. It's about a ten minute walk from where I live!

This is the Crystal Palace. Here I am with my friend Michelle, and two of her roommates.

 This is the church I've been going to in Malasana called San Anton. 

And lastly, for Halloween we put on a haunted house for the students! It was a lot of fun and something we wouldn't be able to do at a public school in the United States. 

This is me and Lia, the bilingual coordinator at my school.

And here I am with Justin, one of the other language assistants.

We made a few kids cry and one third grade class was too scared to even come in!

I will be adding another post soon with pictures from my trip last weekend to Amsterdam! 

The States versus Spain

I know it's been a few weeks since I've updated my blog. And that's primarily because my computer is full and I need to delete stuff before I can upload more pictures. If you know me, that's a time consuming endeavor having to choose what to delete and hoping that my external hard drive doesn't give out on me.

All technical difficulties aside, I decided to write about the similarities and differences between the public education system in the United States and in Spain. Granted, the information I have gathered about both is from limited experience and from what other teachers have told me.

The following are the similarities:
1. Budget cuts. Yes, teachers in Spain complain about the budget cuts and the revamping of the education system. However, the school I work at in Alcobendas is in a wealthy suburb of Madrid. Every classroom has a computer, printer, smartboard, as well as enough desks, chairs, and textbooks. The school requires students to take music and art class and offers afterschool activities including dance and sports.

2. More paperwork. Two weeks ago all the teachers were stressed out because someone was coming to observe the school and required the teachers to turn in their syllabus for the year. I explained that in the United States, teachers complain about the ever increasing paper work and feel more like secretaries than teachers.

3. Less time to be creative. And in turn, teachers have less time to be creative with their lessons. The more time spent trying to follow standards and scientifically prove student progress, the less effective a teacher becomes. Teaching is inherently creative and that art form is being squashed here too.

4. Disparity. As in the States, the quality of education here in Spain depends upon living in the right neighborhood.

The following are the differences:

1. Religion class. In Spain, every public elementary to high school requires students to take a religion class. The class focuses on the history and beliefs of Catholicism. Obviously this is a huge difference between public schools in the States, where teachers are not allowed to initiate conversations about religion.

2. Students or teachers change classrooms. In a bilingual elementary school, the students or teachers change classrooms. At my school, the students change classrooms. The purpose is for students to associate one classroom with speaking English and the other classroom with speaking Spanish. In the States, students typically begin switching classrooms when they are in middle school or junior high, except for some charter school which have students change classrooms when they are in elementary school.

3. No National Standards. Teachers are only required to follow the curriculum in the textbook! But bilingual schools are required to prepare students for the Trinity exam, a test comprised of a prepared writing sample about a chosen topic and conversation. The school pays for each student to take the exam and the school is rated based on how well their students do on this exam.

4. Breakfast & Lunch Break. Teachers at my school have a thirty minute break to have coffee, fruit, donuts, or toast while the kids eat their snack and play outside. And then we have an hour break to eat lunch together. In the States (at least from my experience) teachers only have time to sit in their classroom and eat lunch while grading papers, attending a meeting, or preparing for the next class.

5. Special Education. Students with special needs do not have a separate class but are included in the general classroom. In Spain, students with special needs simply receive differentiated instruction from a general education teacher. The teacher is not required to have a license in special education.

6. Tenure. There is only one tenured teacher at the school I work at. The process of becoming a tenured teacher is more difficult here than it is in the States (even with the changes made by Bloomberg in NY). You are required to take tests as well as be observed by the principal, be interviewed, and have a portfolio.

7. Halloween. We get to celebrate Halloween at school! The teachers and sixth graders are making a haunted house for the students which includes ghosts, a seamstress sewing a dead person, a typist writing You're going to die on the typewriter (that's me), zombies in chains, fake blood, fingers, and eyeballs. Eva, the teacher organizing all of this, said to be sure to scare the students from behind so they don't knock each other over. She suggested I growl or hiss at the students as they pass by me. Needless to say, I'm preparing myself for total chaos.


The general sentiment I've gotten is that with each new district president, major changes are implemented to the education system. And when there is little improvement, there are more changes. I've talked to several Spaniards (my roommates Marcos & Armando, plus Julian, a student I'm tutoring) about how dissatisfied I am with the language instruction I received in elementary and high school. That I don't remember anything because I never practiced or had to use it. Even though they speak English much better than I speak Spanish, they say they feel the same way and that in Spain people only speak Spanish. They tell me the only reason they know more English than I know Spanish is because they listen to music and watch tv shows and movies in English.

That's all I've got for now. Hopefully my next post will be full of pictures from what I've been doing in Madrid the past few weeks!

Weekend Trip to Jerez de la Frontera

There are things about Madrid that are similar to New York. One is my morning commute. The train I take at 8:30 to Alcobendas is crowded, mostly with college aged students. Rarely do I find a seat until the train is almost to my stop. But the main difference is the train is above ground. So for forty minutes I have a lovely view of fields with grazing horses and the mountains in the distance. 

After work on Friday, I took a train to Jerez de la Frontera to celebrate Anna's birthday. I met Anna in Sevilla and we were in the same Spanish class at CLIC. Jerez is famous for its sherry, so of course we took a tour of Bodega Tio Pepe. This was my first wine tasting/tour, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

This is where the wine tasting happened. I liked the dry sherry but absolutely hated the sweet sherry. 

Here's the group of English teachers I went to Jerez with. From right to left: me, Stephanie, Laura (who lives in Jerez and is from NY!), Jenny, Anna (birthday girl!), Caroline, and Anton (I tried to remove the red eye but it didn't work!)

Tio Pepe has a tradition of setting up a ladder and a glass of wine for the mice to drink. Pretty cute.

For dinner, we ended up at Guadalajara, a Mexican restaurant. 

We had cava, cake, and ice cream. Anton and Anna also tried some of the lime looking oranges (looks like a lime, tastes like an orange) from one of the trees along the streets of Jerez. 

We also played Quien es Quien (Guess Who). Board games were provided by BB Jerez where we stayed. 

Jerez is small, about 200,000 people. It was nice to visit for the weekend and be able to walk around without getting lost. All of the pictures in this blog post were provided by Jenny, Stephanie, and Laura. 

On another note, I've been listening to Cheyenne's new album Kings County. Thanks for making me miss Brooklyn hardcore. 

Vive despacio

 I found this friendly little reminder in my closet to live slowly. And I definitely need to be reminded of that on a daily basis. Friends who have lived in Spain warned me that the way of live here is much slower, especially coming from New York. A few examples of the slow paced, relaxed lifestyle are that cars always stop for pedestrians, ALWAYS! Wherever there is a cross walk with no walk signal, you have the right of way. Another example is my roommate Armando. Several times I have asked him a question about what bank he recommends (Barclays), or how to get to IKEA (take the 1 train to Las Suertas), and even though he is on his way out the door to visit his abuela or run errands, he stops to help me. If I were in his shoes, I would be thinking, I'm on my way out the door and I have things to do so I'll tell you later. There isn't the same sense of urgency here, and I feel that on my walk to Atocha every morning on my way to work. Like New York, it's easy to feel like all these people, walking/living slowly, are just in my way. 

Now I'm going to backtrack a bit, because I forgot to mention this in my last post. When I was in Sevilla, my favorite food that Maro (my host mom) made was tomato salad. It's so easy to make and it's cheap! All you need is bread, tomatoes, onion, olive oil, white wine vinegar, and a pinch of salt. Try it!

 A week ago I ventured to IKEA with my friend Michelle. And thank goodness Michelle went with me because it was my first time to IKEA! That's right, I lived in New York for eight years without ever going to IKEA. And I purchased a nightstand (which I assembled all my myself), a lamp, sheets, a pillow, a candle, and measuring cups (it's the only thing the kitchen was lacking).

 Then we strolled through Retiro Park which is a ten minute walk from my apartment. It's the Central Park of Madrid. The only difference is that dogs run free! That might be another one of my favorite things about Spain. Dogs are rarely on a leash, especially at the park, and are allowed inside bars. 

Here is Atocha Station which is about five minutes away from my apartment.

 My roommates treated me and Michelle (she stayed with me until Tuesday when she moved into her apartment) to chocolate con churros. Needless to say I didn't eat much for dinner that night.

 I'm pretty sure I ate four or five churros? And helped Michelle finish her chocolate. Surprisingly, I haven't gained weight.....yet.

This was my first week at CEIP Antonio Machado. And I already have 3 tutoring lessons set up after school! I mostly helped with English evaluations this past week and assessed students conversational English. The 4th graders will take the Trinity exam in the spring, and it is essentially my job to prepare them for it. Every bilingual school pays to take this test to receive a certificate stating that their students are proficient in English. It's a big deal, like standardized tests in the United States. The test consists of two parts, conversation and a writing sample on a chosen topic. In science, the fourth grade is studying the digestive system and the 5th graders about living and non living things. I'll be doing some research on those topics this weekend, considering I haven't had science since high school! 

This weekend I went to El Tigre for dinner. It's always crowded with international students because you can order a beer for 2.50 euros and get a huge plate of tapas with it. Then I went to Tupperware (pictured below), a bar in Malasana that was recommended by friends and my Spain Lonely Planet Guide. I think it lived up to the hype and if you visit me, I'll probably take you there. 

Even though I didn't like the other bar we went to in Malsana, this FNL poster made me so happy. However, I was disappointed that my friends Denise and Nangi had no idea what tv show I was talking about. 

Today I went to church at Iglesia Espanola Reformada Episcopal and then met up with friends at El Rastro, a huge flea market that takes over the streets of Madrid every Sunday.

And now I'm on my way to Museo del Prado!  Hasta luego.